The Eclipse class was a parallel
development to the Asia class. The original plan was to
build two prototypes of the new Asia class, one with nacelles above and one with
nacelle below the engineering hull. Starfleet Command, however, rejected this
idea from the Corps of Engineering and demanded the decision about the nacelle
arrangement to made already on the drawing board. The engineers decided in favor
of the "nacelles up" design. And so the idea of an alternative nacelle
arrangement was shelved for more than a decade.

In 2204 however, when the prototype of the Asia class had
just been launched, Starfleet Command surprisingly ordered the construction of a
more versatile vessel based on the Asia class. The new class was expected to
include all the innovative technology of the Asia but without the possibility to
easily convert it to a testbed, a role that should remain solely with the Asia
class. The Corps of Engineering unearthed the plans for the alternative nacelle
arrangement, but only as a starting point to enable an accelerated development.
The finished Eclipse class was an entirely new ship class, although it relied on
many components known from the Asia. The warp drive remained substantially the same,
and its performance could be improved, boosting the top speed to Warp 5.4. Moreover,
owing to the compact arrangement of its hull components the Eclipse class
was more maneuverable. A large shuttlebay occupied the aft half of the sensor
hull, while engineering was moved into a new section attached to the aft end of
the saucer. Although designed to act primarily as a science vessel, the Eclipse class was
equipped with weapons comparable to the Asia class.

The ships served in its role as science vessels till
the 2260s, and were then downgraded to transport vessels. A crew
complement of 20 turned out sufficient for this purpose, so a
large portion of the saucer section could be transformed into
cargo bays. USS Panama, the last ship of this class in service, was decommissioned as
late as 2305, still equipped with the old propulsion system of 2212.